Just for Bethy

But everyone else can enjoy too. Cayden is getting so big. He is walking ALL over the place. He doesn't really crawl a whole lot anymore (unless he is being lazy). He can even stand up all on his own. Sometimes he'll get to his hands and feet and then put his head on the floor and push up until he is standing. He is quite the character. We love him so much and enjoy watching him grow. I can't believe there was ever a time he wasn't with us. He brings us so much joy.

(sorry its a little dark and shaky, apparently I have tremors)

Fall Drive in the mountains

What a weekend! Jared and I have been planning for weeks to go for a drive in the mountains. Well, we finally took our drive on Saturday. I have never been in the mountains in the Fall so it was quite the experience for me. We had such a great time. Even though we missed watching conference I'm so glad we went. It was so nice just to hang out and spend the day together. Cayden was such a trooper too. We stopped and got out to walk around and he had so much fun. Then a ways down the road we stopped again and had a picnic lunch. We got back home just in time for my little brother's birthday party and for Jared to go to the Priesthood session of conference. It was a PERFECT day.

I know its a lot of pictures but it was hard to choose only a few.

Happy Belated birthday to my little brother Timmy. You are so special to us and we love you so much!!!!

We also want to wish a very Happy Birthday today to our brother-in law Sean. We hope you have an awesome birthday and that Jess spoils you as much as you did her. ; ) Have a wonderful day!!! We love you!!!

LOTS OF LOVE TO YOU ALL!!! Have a great week!!!!

Sometimes life is just hard....

As often as I try to blog it seems that something happens and I completely forget about my blog. I don't just forget to blog, I actually forget that it exists. But I do my best to keep it updated since we don't get everyone called as often as we would like.




So let me start by wishing my wonderful sister-in-law Jessica a very belated Happy Birthday. It sounds like you had an awesome birthday week! We are so glad that you did. We think the world of you and wish you the very best in the year to come.

We are doing well. Jared finished another animation project that he's been working on to add to his demo reel. So now that he finished that he's ready to send out his resume and start the official job hunt. He has already applied for a job with Insomniac Games that would, if he got the job, take us to North Carolina. I would LOVE to go back to the east coast. So I'm for sure keeping my fingers crossed for that one to come through.

Work for me is as crazy as ever. This first month back has been a complete nightmare. I try to stay positive though. Its hard having new people stepping in and throwing off the groove that we already have going. I still love my job but this year seems to be a little more challenging.

Cayden is doing FANTASTIC. He is walking all over the place. Its fun but hard too. His new found love is the computer keyboard. He will go over to the computer desk, reach up, and feel around until he feels the keyboard. The other day he actually pulled it down. I guess that means its time to move everything up another level. Oh, boy!!! He is also enjoying the freedom of feeding himself. About 2 weeks ago I was feeding him and he reached out, took the spoon, dipped it into the cup and began feeding himself. Needless to say it gets a little messy but its so cute. He is growing up so fast.

I also want to thank everyone who has kept my dad in their prayers. He is doing well. It seems that every time we get new news it seems to be positive. Its good that my dad is getting positive news because today we found out some not so good news about my oldest brother. This is where life just doesn't seem fair. Today Chris found out that the tumor in his brain that was removed almost 7 years ago is growing back. He has been doing so well and been so positive about everything that he has had to go through and now he has another hurdle to jump. I just don't understand why he has such difficult challenges to face while I sit with such a wonderful life. I wish that I could go through it for him so he doesn't have to do it again. I guess I just have to put my faith in the Lord and pray that everything will be ok. So, if anyone wants to add my brother to their prayers I would appreciate it.

We hope everyone is doing well. We love you all so much!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

My Birthday!

Now that some time has passed and I have come to grips with fact that I'm getting old I can tell you about how I spent my birthday this year.

My family usually waits until the weekend after your birthday to celebrate it. Well, we couldn't do that this year because they decided they wanted to go to Utah for the weekend instead. So we had my party the day before my birthday. On Sunday night I asked my mom if she'd make me a princess cake. She told me no. I whined a little bit and she said she'd come up with something. So Monday night rolled around and we headed to my parents house for dinner. My dad made an amazing steak dinner. It was perfect. Then it was time for cake and ice cream. I about died when I saw my cake. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! My mom is so talented!!!!!!

Yes, I got to keep the barbie too. She is Princess Aurora (my fav. princess)!!

My mom even bought me some sweet princess candles. My brothers lit them twice instead of putting all of my candles on the cake. I'm so glad my parents still spoil me. SO after cake and ice cream I got my gifts from my parents. Then we just and hung out. We played a little game of who knows Katie best. Jared didn't do so hot in the game. But that just means that I have more stories to tell him!!! We had such a fun night.

Then the next day I had to get up and go to work. I hate working on my birthday and with work being so crazy I really didn't want to go. But I went and couldn't wait to get home and spend the rest of the day with Jared. My mom and dad kept Cayden so we could have a baby free evening. I had no idea what we were going to do, Jared wouldn't tell me, but I was excited when I left work. Jared got home later than I was hoping and when he was all ready to go he came out with my gift. An envelope. Inside the envelope was a card with another small envelope inside. After reading the card I opened the smaller envelope and pulled out a bunch of fake money. I asked Jared what it was for and he said it was for our "game". Then he told me to read the note to explain the "game". Well our "game" and my gift was a shopping spree. Each time I spent money in a store I had to pay Jared with my fake money. It was so much fun and I got some really cute new things. It was the best birthday present ever. After shopping we went to dinner at The Olive Garden and then went and got Cayden.

me with my fake money

I didn't want the evening to be over. It was such a great evening and I couldn't have asked for a better night. If I have birthdays like this every year I might be able to handle getting old.

Thank you to everyone who called, sent gifts, cards and birthday wishes. They all made my day so much better.

LOVE TO ALL!!!!

Its true that you grow in your sleep!!!

Three Days Old

One Month Old

Two Months Old

Four Months Old

Five Months Old

Six Months Old

Seven Months Old

Eight Months Old

Nine Months Old

I can't believe 9 months have gone by since our little Cayden joined our family. He has brought so much joy into our lives. He is such a smart boy and we have so much fun watching him grow. We go to the doctor on the 15th to find out how much he really has grown. I can't wait!!!!

First Step!!!!!

So this is actually his third step (5:02 pm). I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to get the first two. He took his very first step to his Uncle Tim. It was so exciting to watch. I was so excited that he waited for me to get home from work to do it and that I didn't miss it. Being a mom is the BEST thing in the world!!!!

Hurricanes and Hapy Birthday!

First....

I want to wish a very happy 1st birthday to our sweet nephew Spencer. He is such a fun little guy and we love him very much. He is such a good buddy to Cayden and they love to play together. I was so excited when I got to go and meet Spencer for the first time. He was so little and so precious. He has grown so much and gained such an awesome personality. Spencer is such a wonderful boy and we wish him the best first birthday EVER!!!

Next...

My heart goes out to those who were effected by Hurricane Fay. It went back and forth between a hurricane and tropical storm and thankfully when it hit my grandparents it was only at tropical storm status. It hit at low tide so they didn't even have any flooding. Being in a hurricane can be a vary scary thing. I was in Florida when Hurricane Charley hit in 2004. It was quite devastating to see all of the damage it caused. This is what happened to my grandparents house in 2004.

The pool cage is their house and the tree is their neighbor's.

Here are a few more pictures after Hurricane Charley.

My prayers go out to all the hurricane victims.

On a positive note....We are doing well and Cayden is getting closer to walking!!! He's growing like a weed!

LOVE TO ALL!!!!!!!!

Happy Happy Birthday

Friday was Tayler's (our awesome niece) birthday. She is such a special little girl with such a wonderful imagination. She could play make believe for hours. She is so loving and sweet and would do anything she could for you if you needed help. We have so much fun watching her grow and become the beautiful young lady that she is.

We love you so much Tay and hope you had a wonderful birthday!!

Busy, Busy, Busy.... Fun, Fun, Fun

Time to catch up again...This could take a while so get comfortable.

At the end of July we sadly had to help my sister and brother in-law, Kimmy and Tyson, move. It has been so much fun having them live just up the street. Cayden and Spencer are still young but they are such good friends and love to play together. Spencer is a really good ring leader and teaches Cayden lots of things. Spencer thought Cayden how fun it is to climb stairs or for that matter, climb anything! I think he taught Cayden the art of diving too. Cayden dove for Kimmy to get her mac and cheese and a bookshelf broke his fall so he had a nice bump between his eyes and a beautiful black eye for a few days. So anyway, after a few very long evenings we got them moved into their new house in Loveland. They are only an hour away but we will miss having them close.

Cayden and Spencer Chillin in the cart at Sam's

Cayden's busted nose (this was the bast picture I could get)
I took this just after I stopped him from climbing on top of the toy. (Guess who taught him to do that??)
Cayden at the end of a day playing with Spencer

Then Jared had a few days off work because his boss closed the shop. We decided it was a good time to take one last trip to Utah. We stayed at Jared's sister Jess' house on Wed and Thurs. We had such an awesome time hanging out. As soon as we got there and Jess said "Rylee, Jared and Katie and Cayden are here" Rylee came bouncing down the stairs saying "Katie, Katie, Katie" and then jumped into my arms. It made me feel SO good. We had such a great time hanging out with them. Then on Friday we headed down to Jared's mom's house and we stayed there until Sunday morning. On Saturday we took Cayden to see my Grandma and then to the Mt. Timp. temple where Jared and I were sealed. It was such a nice day. Then we went to the school where Leslie works and she showed us her library. It was very cool. After that we went into Tooele to the DI and I bought a ton of children's books to add to our collection. It was great! Sunday morning rolled around and we headed home. Cayden was such a trooper. He is a great traveler. The only time he got cranky was because his teeth were hurting. We are trying to get this teething thing under control.

We just love these girls!!! (and we love to spoil them!)

Cayden playing in Grandma's library

Jared even got his baby doll back. (and then it got thrown away)

On Monday and Tuesday I spent the day helping my mom get her house ready for my sister and brother in-law, Beth and Matias, to come. Matias had a court hearing yesterday to determine if he could stay in the country or not. Everyone expected him to be deported that night. But he didn't. Matias was given a HUGE blessing and is able to stay in the country until Feb. So he comes back for court in Feb. and has the option of voluntary leave. So he will be out of the country for a few months and then be able to get his papers and come back.

Cayden and Aunt Bethy

So life is good. We are happy. Cayden is growing just as he should. Jared is working hard and was given a salary position at work(which means a raise and benefits). And I have one more week to hang with Cayden before I return to work.

We hope everyone is doing well. LOVE TO ALL!!!

NEW CAR!!!

OK. We finally did it. We got a new car and we absolutely LOVE IT. Our eyes were REALLY opened last night as we were car shopping. We had in mind what we wanted and then shocked find that a car we thought we'd NEVER want is actually the car we ended up getting.

Its a 2006 KIA Sportage. It only has 42,200 miles on it. Its a cute little SUV and it suits our needs. We even got exactly what we wanted for our trade on our passport and the monthly payments we could afford. We weren't trying to play their stupid and extremely annoying game when we kept telling them no. But in the end it all worked out in our favor. Jared and I are very excited and pleased with our purchase.

So, what do you think......???